Art That Claims to Be the 'Original Batman' To Go on Sale on eBay

Did a relatively unknown cartoonist named Frank Foster II come up with the initial idea for Batman seven years before Bob Kane's creation hit stands in 1939's Detective Comics #27?

That's the claim made by the artist's son Frank Foster III, who is selling what he says are his grandfather's original drawings of a character named "Batman," created in 1932 but never brought to publication. Foster claims his father was encouraged to become a cartoonist by L'il Abner creator Al Capp following his graduation from art school in the early '30s.

Foster hosts a website titled OriginalBatman.com where he lays out the evidence for his claims, along with testimony from his mother and other accounts of his father's purported creation.

Bob Kane and Bill Finger are credited by DC Comics as Batman's co-creators.

The drawings (which can be seen here) will go on sale August 16 on eBay, with a starting bid of $100,000.